Snakes on Jack Benny

Continuing with my current strategy of watching some (but not all) of the AFI top 100 comedies, alternating them with MST3K episodes. I'm not reviewing any MST3K, because there's no point. They're all funny, and not a lot separates one from the other, except maybe This Island Earth, which is great. On to Mr. Benny.

To Be or Not to Be is a comedy made in 1942 and set in 1939 Poland, right before the Germans invade. Jack Benny and his wife, Carole Lombard, are actors in a theater company. Robert Stack is an unbelievable 23 years old, making me say, "Robert Stack used to be 23?" All three of them are good, and so is everybody else. It's a comedy with a serious backdrop (as if you couldn't tell when I mentioned the NAZIS). Everybody plays it straight except for Benny, who plays Jack Benny. In other cases you could call it a drawback, but I think it works very well. He never lets the movie drag you down. He conversely seems to lament his life when things are going well, and revel in the challenges when things get tough.

I laughed a lot more than I thought I would, which is always a pleasant feeling.